Last year’s Willow’s album Lately I Feel Everything marked her deep dive into feverish pop-punk. Aside from exploding with catchy hooks and riffs with sharp edges, it also featured Travis Barker, whose influence is becoming more and more ubiquitous, as well as Avril Lavigne, who just released her bombastic LP Luv Sux. Since then, the “Meet Me At Our Spot” singer has proved that this shift to heavier music isn’t just a phase; she joined Machine Gun Kelly for the infectious, guitar-heavy “Emo Girl” off his recent album Mainstream Sellout.
Willow is taking things to the next level with this new single, “Purge,” with influencer Siiickbrain. Dramatic drawls, caustic riffs, screams, trap beats, lyrics like depressed poetry… not to mention the music video, which has lots of black lipstick, cigarettes, piercings, and black eyeliner. The song itself is more aligned with the kind of merging of pop and nu-metal that Poppy and Mothica have been experimenting with; it disposes of the buoyancy of pop-punk and instead takes on discordant, disruptive heaviness. At its core, though, it’s an anthem for goth girls who just want to wallow in their pain and cause trouble for fun.
Watch the chaotic video for “Purge” above.